Donnerstag, 1. Februar 2018

When Freddy
Kittel moved to Crawford Street in 1965 and changed his name to August Wilson, he purchased an aged secondhand phonograph to keep in his
boardinghouse room. Up Centre Avenue, there was a thrift shop run by the
St. Vincent de Paul charity where he could buy used 78 rpm records for
five cents apiece. He snapped up stacks at a time, whatever happened to
be there, mostly old pop tunes like “(How Much Is) That Doggie in the
Window?” by Patti Page. One day, he was sorting through his latest
purchase and found a 78 whose faded title was covered with a yellowed,
typed label that read: “Bessie Smith: Nobody in Town Can Bake a Sweet
Jelly Roll Like Mine.”

Wilson put on the record, and a piercing, plaintive voice filled the room: